MORRIS DALLA COSTA, QMI AGENCY

The London Lightning are done doing battle on the hardwood for this season.

But they aren’t done battling the National Basketball League of Canada — and this time, it’s with its front office.

Vito Frijia, owner of the Lightning, the most successful team on and off the court since the NBL was established three years ago, has called for commissioner Paul Riley to resign.

Riley has been the NBL commissioner since the beginning of this season.

The demand for Riley to resign was made, in part, because of accusations made by Riley concerning how I covered the Lightning and the league.

The commissioner continues to yammer about my personal attacks on Windsor Express management and general nastiness dealing with the league. He has not produced any evidence that would lead to the kind of assault on freedom of the press that one of his owners, Dartis Willis, perpetrated by refusing to allow me into the Windsor ­building for Game 7 of the Lightning/Express semifinal series.

Mind you, producing is not something Riley is known for.

It’s probably why he was so proud of the Twitter, media and electronic media frenzy whipped up by his support of my banishment from Windsor’s WFCU Centre on Tuesday night.

Riley was finally able to produce some sort of publicity for his league.

Here is Riley’s e-mail discussing the fallout:

“Guys, how exactly is any of this media attention bad for us? No one is saying our players aren’t great. No one is saying we do not provide great family entertainment.

“They are saying, “how dare you eject a reporter!!”

“They are saying, “Paul Riley is an ass . . . among other things.”

“The residual of this whole thing is that in the last 12 hours we have received more media coverage than in the history of the league.”

A commissioner who picks and chooses which teams he will send league information to or communicate with should be cause for concern.

The question Frijia should ask is, “What else has been going on behind my back?” If I were a student in Riley’s ethics in journalism class at Humber College, the question I would ask in class after seeing this e-mail would be, “You allowed a journalist to be thrown out of an event he was covering and then are happy about the publicity?”

That e-mail was sent to all the owners of NBL teams except for Lightning owner Frijia.

It is a proud day in the annals of NBL Canada, a day when the seventh game of a semifinal between two great teams was barely mentioned because an owner was allowed by a commissioner to toss out a columnist.

The rift between the Lightning and NBL front office has been brewing for some time.

Frijia has been continually frustrated over how league management runs the business end of the NBL. Frijia is upset that the NBL still does not have more visibility and that the league continues to struggle financially.

As for Frijia’s relationship with Riley, there isn’t any. It’s embarrassing for the league that the owner of its most financially successful team and two-time champion says that Riley has done nothing to move the league along.

“I don’t even talk to him because it’s a waste of time,” Frijia says of Riley. “I have no idea what he’s done on a positive note. What he’s promised, he hasn’t delivered. I am not aware of anything he’s done. He hasn’t brought any sponsorship. He hasn’t brought any TV deal. He hasn’t brought any income to the league.”

It’s a scathing indictment of a commissioner who may be pleased by the publicity generated by Tuesday’s fiasco, despite it being mainly negative.

“Guys, how exactly is any of this media attention bad for us?” Riley asks.

Try this.

Frijia knows this kind of league division and negative publicity will do nothing to attract potential investors or new franchises. Investors want stability, sources of income and positive publicity if they’re going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on a franchise.

If the most successful team in a struggling league isn’t pleased with the league’s direction and doesn’t trust its leadership, major investors are going to run — and run as fast as they can.

Mr. Commish, that’s how this kind of media attention is going to hurt.

If you can’t figure that out, then as an owner in the league it would make me very nervous.